BanglaCricket Article

On the BanglaCricket forums, there already has been many posts and predictions about the upcoming West Indies tour discussing the team, our openers, predictions amongst other. I would like to talk about what our targets should be for the tour.

On the BanglaCricket forums, there already has been many posts and predictions
about the upcoming West Indies tour discussing the team, our openers, predictions
amongst other. I would like to talk about what our targets should be for the tour.

Win: For the ODI series, our target should be to win all three
of the matches. Well, I know, you know, and all of us know that this will not
happen. But we should not take any defensive approach in order to have a better
loss. We need to be offensive even if that means a huge defeat. Hopefully that
will bring us one win.

400+ Runs: What a coincidence! Our highest team total is the
same as our opponent's one man's total! Not good! We need to get rid of it.
Since the first test, we have never gone beyond 400. We should target that in
at least one of the four innings in the Tests.

A defensive approach to win a Test: I do not think that a
test win will come in this tour. But, if we don't try, it will never
come. However, if we do have the chance of securing a draw, we should go for
it. We should not risk too much for a test win, as oppose to ab ODI win.

Focus on Captain: Because we had a win, and the team performance
was impressive during the Zimbabwe tour, Habibul
Bashar's captaincy and performance went unnoticed. It would have
been discussed much more had it been otherwise. Including everything, his performance,
the Rafique incident, the batting lineup and bowling handling, I can not give
him a grade of more than F- (F minus). Yes, I am keeping in mind his
innings in the match we won. But he was no where near his ability nor what he
should have done. It is time for him to show that he deserves to be the captain
of the team.

Opening Pair: Having 4 candidates to open from a 18 member
team, is making it hard for us to guess who will open. It is almost certain
that Manjurul
Islam Rana will open in the ODIs as suggested by Whatmore,
and keeping Javed
Omar in the Test squad implies that he will open in the Tests.
Now, who will be their partners? I think it is a bad idea to decide it just
before the game, because the players do not get a chance to prepare mentally.
It is time for us to stop experimenting with opening and set a fixed pair for
each type of game, ODI and Test. No, I do not have any suggestions here, because
this task is not easy and this
thread on the BanglaCricket forum touches on that.

Get Prepared For longer Innings: Our players have a problem
with playing longer innings no matter where. Domestic or ODI or Test, we do
not get long innings. This needs to stop now. I would like to see some centuries
from our top order. It is even more important for ODI since we have only one
century there. It is really unfortunate that while we have played so many ODIs,
we only have one century. Players do have the ability, but they do not have
the mentality. Habibul
Bashar Sumon has to be real careful here. While he can be a good
inspiration for them, he can also have a negative impact. If he keeps throwing
his wickets recklessly after getting set, this could set a bad example for the
team and other players might start to follow it subconsciously.

Let us hope for the best.

About the author(s): Rubu Islam, a BanglaCricket staff, goes by the nick "Rubu" in BanglaCricket forums.